The operation of devices, telecommunications terminals in this instance, by means of a portable unit is known from the field of telecommunications. Chip cards, which are also known by the name of smart-card or memocards, are used for this purpose.
Other known configurations of cards for operating a telecommunications terminal are magnetic strip cards, hologram cards and laser cards. Furthermore, memory cards are known in the state of the art, which only consist of memory units with non-volatile memory, but do not have any built-in intelligence. ("Chip Cards (Memocards) and Telecommunications"; George J. Lissandrello; Pacific Telecommunications Council; Honolulu, USA, 1986; pages 166 to 175).
In contrast to these three types of cards, the chip card (smart-card) has a built-in "intelligence", which can perform calculations and control the access to the memory in the card. These chip cards are used as "electronic money", "electronic keys" or as "portable information storage". Frequently used telephone numbers can thus be stored in the chip card and called up for public telephones with the "Quick dialing" service feature. ("Chip cards; cards with "memory""; Eberhard Schrother; Funkschau (Radio Show) 7/1988; pages 50-52).
Chip cards are also used for "protected data storage", as "in-the-card data encoding" (end-to-end encryption), as "reciprocal authentication of cards and terminal", as an "electronic signature" and as "proof of identity in the card" ("The chip card in modern communications systems"; Wolfgang Effing, ITF technical report; Volume 101; pages 451 to 464).
Another area of utilization of portable units for operating devices is found in the field of dam processing and dam communication. With printers, e.g. laser printers, so-called IC cards are used to expand the active character set (Kyocera Laser Printer, F 2200, Japan). When selecting a character set that is not located in the read-only memory of the printer but in the IC card, the additional memory, the character set of the IC card is activated for printing.
The invention has the task of developing the operation and control of devices by means of a portable unit. In particular, the task consists in developing the voice-controlled operation of a telephone installation.